Monday, June 25, 2018

Church exhibit 3

Well, another year has gone and so has the quilt exhibit I sponsor at church. It's a lot of work finding quilters and gathering their quilts but when they are all displayed in our beautiful little church and we see the looks on the faces of people as they walk in and see how the place is transformed, it's all worth it. I couldn't do it without PH, Friends Terry, Marilyn, Carolyn, Lisa, Cheryl, Ned, Kay, new friend Janet, and I know I'm forgetting someone....but with their help we get this set up in about 30 minutes. Bags and bags of quilts opened and placed over pews, ropes in place, Thou Shalt Not Touch signs placed, and early pictures taken.

This year we exhibited 109 quilts from forty one quilters or quilt owners. I have the names of four people who asked if they could display next year. One woman who asked said this is one of the best quilt shows in the area and she wants to be in it! Oh, My!

There are no rules. Well, one. Quilt. You didn't have to make it, you didn't have to own it, all you had to do is tell me where it was and I'd go get it, put a name on it and with the help of my helper people, drape them over the pews for the afternoon. All sizes and colors and styles and patterns and all different from the previous years.

I've met so many people these past three years and if I discovered someone was a quilter I wasn't shy about asking them to display their work for the afternoon. I met one woman at an art gallery. I recognized someone from years ago standing behind me in line one day and didn't leave without her phone number and email. I got two quilts from a woman who held a garage sale. I always say, if you talk to someone long enough you'll make a connection with them and if that connection was quilting I wrote down the name, phone number and email and contacted them when I started making calls to gather quilts. No one has said no.

Our pastor was reassigned and Sunday, the last day of the festival, was his last day. A few months ago I had the idea to make a wall hanging of the front door of the church as a thank you for allowing the exhibit in the church. Weeks later he announced he was being reassigned and I thought, "ok, now it's a going away gift." Last week he talked about the things he would miss and one of the things was the peacefulness of unlocking the church door every morning and locking it up at night and I thought, well, ok! We aren't a huge mega-church so we all knew him and he knew everyone and it's been hard to say goodbye.